Cathay Pacific pilots are to meet next month, raising the spectre of renewed industrial action over the Christmas holidays.

The general secretary of the Aircrew Officers' Association, John Findlay, said pilots would set their future course at the extraordinary general meeting on December 12.

Ending a suspension of their work-to-rule over pay and rostering was one option, he confirmed, but refused to speculate on the prospect of holiday delays.

The pilots would prefer to negotiate, he said, but Cathay had refused to talk until a "blacklist" banning new recruits from membership for life was dropped.

Mr Findlay accused Cathay of taking advantage of the economic situation as a "screen to hide behind" to resist holding talks.

Cathay tried to imply it was blameless, but it had sacked more than 50 pilots in July, prompting the union to institute the recruitment ban, he said.

A spokeswoman for Cathay, Lisa Wong Lai-shan, said it would be premature to comment on the possibility of renewed industrial action or delays.

However, she was confident most pilots would perform as professionals in the cockpit.

One of the sacked pilots, who did not wish to be named, said he would not be surprised to see a resumption of the industrial action - or even an escalation.

"They are liars," he said of Cathay. "Everybody is just fed up."

He believed Cathay was not in a poor position, and noted the company continued to run advertisements to recruit pilots.

"They are simply using this opportunity to try and score a cheap win without saying so. They are trying to use this to scare everyone," he said.

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I dont know what it is with CX but the people at the top are a bunch of di*k heads. They are showing time and time again that they have no interest to talk with the pilots, even when the pilots agree to what CX want, they then jump in with a new request before they can talk !!.

Problem is if CX pilots do take further action it could risk the future of the whole airline.

On a side note the cabin crew are also talking about taking action after their 13 month pay was cut. A good friend told me yesterday that one cabin crew jumped out of the hotel window in Vancouver yesterday as he was so depressed with the salary cuts !!